A lot of people tend to forget about their AC unit during the winter and focus their attention on the furnace and other heating methods. However, your AC unit can still be active even during winter, which means that you really shouldn’t ignore checking it every once in a while, just like you would before starting the cooling season in the summer.
Not only will you be able to use it safely during the winter, but you will have an easier time setting it up for the daunting task of keeping you cool in the summer. You never know when a sudden wave of hot weather is going to strike, so you should consider some of these simple and easy fixes as a way to keep your AC ready. All you need is a good partner, like Hughes Air Heating & Cooling.
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Change the Filters to Ensure Proper Airflow
This is the first thing any HVAC technician will tell you. Air filters which are dirty and full of debris obstruct air flow which not only impedes the regular airflow which makes your AC unit work extra hard, but it also makes the air that you breathe dirty and probably not very healthy.
During the summer, we are reminded to do this often enough, but towards the end of the cooling season and particularly during the heating season, it can quite easily slip your mind. HVAC specialists are keen on reminding us that we should replace our air filters once a month for the best results, but during winter and the cooler seasons, when the AC unit is used only sporadically, it fine if you do it only once in two months.
Thermostat Management
A lot of people only have two settings for their thermostat – winter and summer. However, that’s not the optimal way to keep your HVAC system healthy and fully operational. First of all, the weather is not the same during the seasons, meaning that there are some days in the summer when you will not need air conditioning, and vice versa, winter days when your heating will feel like it’s too much.
That’s when you will need to employ some manual control over your thermostat. Make sure that you save your usual setting for future use, but you should always adapt the temperature to your own feeling, rather than adapting to the thermostat. Not only can you feel more comfortable, but you can also save a bit on your bills.
AC Manages Your Air Quality As Well
We tend to think about our AC units as simple cooling devices. However, they do much more for us than that. They are also in charge of our air quality. The air filters mentioned previously serve an important function. They filtrate the allergens and germs from the air and trap them away from us.
If you neglect your AC unit, you are removing one of your best defenses against various illnesses and allergies. Opening the window each day isn’t something that a lot of people practice in the depth of winter, so AC is our most common source of fresh air.
Timing Is Important
The best part about performing an air conditioning maintenance now is that you will have plenty of time to prepare yourself in case that there is something wrong with your AC. You can start putting aside a bit of money for this purpose now and not have to cash out a large sum unexpectedly.
Another good point is that winter is a bit of a slow season for air condition maintenance, so you won’t have to wait, and you may even find a discount for a task that you will have to perform anyway at some point.
